Scottish Government plans to lift all major Covid restrictions by August 9
Scotland will move to Level 0 on July 19 as part of Scottish Government plans and all major remaining legal coronavirus restrictions will be lifted on August 9 if possible, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs. The news comes one week after Boris Johnson announced that lockdown easing would also be delayed until the 19th July in England.
Under the Scottish Government’s plans, the country had been due to move to Level 0 from June 28.
The First Minister said: "Assuming we are meeting the revised strategic aim, we hope that all parts of Scotland, not currently in that level, can move to Level 0 on 19 July.
"That means, for example, that the limits for household gatherings indoors will increase from that date, and up to 200 people will be able to attend weddings and funerals.
"We also hope - assuming the data supports this - that the general indoor physical distancing requirement can be reduced from 2 metres to 1 metre.
"And we hope, from that date, to lift the outdoor requirement to physically distance.
"In addition - in recognition of the reduced risk of outdoor transmission and therefore the desire to encourage people to stay outdoors as much as possible - we hope that limits on informal outdoor social gatherings, in private gardens for example, will also be removed at this stage."
Planned lifting of all major restrictions on August 9
With regards to the planned lifting of all restrictions on August 9, the First Minister said: "Our assessment - on balance and assuming we meet the necessary conditions on vaccination and harm reduction - is that it would be possible and proportionate to lift the major remaining legal restrictions on 9 August.
"We will consider and make a final assessment nearer the time of whether - as we hope - this could include the lifting of the legal requirement to physically distance indoors as well as outdoors."
She added: "The move beyond Level 0 will be a major milestone and it will signal a return to almost complete normality in our day to day lives.
"Of course, while this is a longed-for moment, it is important to recognise that we still have a difficult path to navigate over the next few weeks to meet these milestones and, even assuming we do, the pandemic will not be completely over at this stage.
"As our Strategic Framework Update paper sets out, basic mitigations will still be required, as we move through summer and into the autumn, when we face the risk of a further resurgence in cases."
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All priority groups in Scotland will have been fully vaccinated by this Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister told MSPs that everyone in the top nine priority groups set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) would mostly be covered with two jabs.
However, she did say that there may be some people in these groups who cannot make their appointments.
The nine groups, which include everyone over the age of 50, with underlying health conditions and unpaid carers, represent 99% of all Covid-19 deaths during the pandemic.
"The fact that virtually all of them will be fully vaccinated by the end of this week is hugely significant," the First Minister said.
Change in pandemic strategy
The First Minister also told parliament that The Scottish Government is shifting how it handles the pandemic.
In a new paper published today, the Scottish Government will announce that it will now look to "suppress the virus to a level consistent with alleviating its harms while we recover and rebuild for a better future".
Previously, Government policy called for the suppression of the virus "to the lowest possible level".
The First Minister said: "This change reflects the fact that vaccination is reducing - we hope significantly - the harm that the virus causes."
Scotland has recorded four new coronavirus deaths and 2,167 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to latest figures.
It means the death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is now 7,696.
The daily test positivity rate has jumped to 9.1%, up from 7.2% the previous day, according to figures published by the Scottish Government on Tuesday.
Public Health Scotland said there were approximately 15 additional cases in NHS Grampian due to delayed reporting.
There were 171 people in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed Covid-19, and 18 people in intensive care.
So far 3,664,571 people have received the first dose of a Covid vaccination and 2,602,753 have received their second dose.